


We built this house

by IraBragi



Series: Building Home [13]
Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Bat Family, Batfamily Feels, Christmas Dinner, Christmas Fluff, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-26
Updated: 2018-08-26
Packaged: 2019-07-02 15:19:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,173
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15799209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IraBragi/pseuds/IraBragi
Summary: This is the end of the Building Home series chronologically speaking.  It is not the last story I plan to write in this ‘verse though.  Stay tuned for much more family feels and shenanigans!





	We built this house

“Please tell me that I’m at least a little more interesting than those notes?”  I don’t know if it says more about my level of caffeine-induced concentration or my husband’s ability to move silently, but either way, the only answer he got was a startled screech and a book in the general direction of his face (medical textbooks should be licensed as weapons, pound for pound they do more damage than a bullet.)  I was already halfway up and ready to follow the book with a fist before my brain came back online.

“Oi, sorry!  Just me, don’t shoot!”  The punch melted into a hug as Jay wrapped his arms around me.  Even after twenty years, and in an apartment too small for _one_ person to comfortably move around in, he still manages to lift me the six inches of height difference between us until we are nose-to-nose and spun me around.  Even after twenty years I still pretend to be annoyed; and love him for it.

“I’ve missed you.”  
“Me too.  Only a few more months.”

“Good.”

It had been a long three and a half years.  I was forty when I decided that if everyone was going to call me a doctor anyway I might as well get the diploma.  Metropolis is many things, annoyingly lacking in litter and crime for one, but their med school is the best. My plan was simple enough, four years of school then come back to Gotham for my residence.  Assuming I survived, I could make a healthy start to the second half of my life by reducing my daily stress levels as a Gotham General ER doctor.

That was three years ago.  I started out cocky. After over fifteen years of performing emergency medicine on people (plus a few aliens, and in one memorable case a very pissed off hyena) in various stages actively dying, I’d learned a thing or two.  What I needed to learn was how to be a doctor, not a one-man ambulance. Judging by my grades I’ve done that. In six months I would hit the floor for residency. I was already mentally prepared to double my coffey budget. But today the flashcards and the stress could wait.  Today my Jaybird was here to take me home for Christmas.

Jason had stayed in Gotham.  We both agreed that it was the better option.  Even if he didn’t die of boredom in Metropolis, Damian needed the backup now that Bruce was semi-retired (not that the little brat would ever admit to needing said backup, and yes the man was 35 years old and still a brat.  As well as occasionally a fine man.) Jay came and visited as often as possible, or I would drive back and we would see how much trouble we could get into over a weekend. Everyone teased me that I would get soft living away from Gotham, or that I would come to my senses and never come back.  I was never worried though; dirty, crime ridden, mess that it is, Gotham will always be home.

“You ready?”

“Nooooo”  Jason was far to much a Bat to ever admit that there was _anything_ better about Metropolis vs Gotham but the lack of family who tended to barge in with minimal knocking was a perk in my book.

“We could stay the night here and drive up tomorrow.”

“Alfred would worry.”  With a sigh he admitted defeat and we gathered up the rest of our clothes and bundled up for the drive.  

\---------------------

Grayson may have moved to Bludhaven, but he still knew better than to risk Alfred’s wrath by missing Christmas dinner.  Especially after the universe showed a worrying lack of good sense and allowed him and Starfire to have twins. The girls were almost six years old now and, if their chatter about “needing little brothers to dress up” was anything to go by, there were more on the horizon.

Tim had just announced his promotion to head detective on the Major Crimes task force.  I think Bruce lost the last of his black hair the day that he learned that not one, but two, of his children were going to wear a badge, but Tim knew what he wanted.

Over the years Commissioner Gordon had done his best to change the GPD for the better but in the end it was time as much as anything else that made the difference.  He’s getting close to retirement by now and last year Gotham appointed a new Chief of Police.

The story of how Tanya Sawyer went from living on the street and working as a low level henchman to the top of her academy class, the same class that Timothy Drake was also _determined_ to be the top of, and how the two of them bonded over mutual disdain for sleep and addiction to coffee is a story for another time.  Technically the chief dating one of her detectives is against the rules but I suppose that if there is one thing GPD is good at it’s knowing when to turn a blind eye.  I also happen to know that Tim has a ring hidden in his car glove box and a plan for after Christmas dinner.

Last year Bruce “retired;” at least insofar as he mostly doesn't patrol anymore.  Lately his efforts have been focused on working with the Justice League to improve relationships between existing authorities and the hero communities.  Essentially he is being Bruce Wayne while being Batman. He _hates_ it.  What he loves is the chance to train a new generation of heroes.  Whenever the bureaucracy gets to be too much you can find him in the gym showing all the new blood that “the old man” still has some tricks up his sleeve.  He pretends not to know about the betting pool on how long new recruits will last.

Damian had stepped into his father’s mantle with about as much grace as can be expected.  “Young Batman” as he is becoming known, has his father’s relentlessness and he is learning to have his kindness as well.  Unfortunately he already had Bruce’s lack of self preservation and absolute aversion to back-up. I’m sure that he will keep me busy for years to come.

Jason still patrols as Red hood to some extent, mostly to play bad cop to Damian's good but these days, more often than not, you can find him in the city library.  He had been working odd shifts at the library for years, half the time not even for pay, just because the quiet was nice and he loved the books. Eventually they convinced him to help with a new tutoring program which brought young people who were in the criminal justice system in for one-on-one help with schoolwork.  When the first sixteen year old, six foot two, gang member with attitude showed up, the other liberians took one look at Jay and paired them together. Jason loved it.

He’s a natural teacher and he’s been in their shoes.  The kids love his no-nonsense approach and the fact that he will teach them cool karate moves after they finish their work is also a plus.  After the program received a generous donation from “an anonymous source” Jason was hired full time. I can’t wait to hang out with some of “Jay’s flock” as the kids had become jokingly know as.  Who would have thought that a couple of messed up kids like us would grow up so good?

Riding on Jay’s bike is definitely more nerve wracking when you aren’t 21 and have the exact statistics on motorcycle fatalities stuck in your head, but there is still nowhere I’d rather be.  Arms wrapped around him, with the wind just-this-side-of too cold, and the stress of school falling away; it makes you feel alive.

\-----------------------

We get to the manor in the middle of the pack.  Dick and Starfire are already there and Damian was staying at the house for some Batman-related reason, but we beat Tim and Tanya as well as Bruce himself (some crises with the league, he would fly in with Clark half an hour later looking equal parts thrilled to see everyone and miffed that he had to resort to asking for help.)  Martha Kent and Wonder Woman showed up together shortly thereafter.

If you told me that Alfred Pennywise was an immortal being who was choosing to spend his days with us poor mortals I wouldn’t be even remotely be surprised.  Age has slowed him down somewhat, and there are a couple of new faces around the manor to help with the workload, but he is still the same man I met the first time Damian invited me over.  I hope that if I live to be twice his age I will learn to be half the man he is.

Dinner was a noisy affair but when Martha Kent bowed her head everyone fell silent as she offered thanks for family and friends.

Most of my classmates complain that they can’t talk about the gory aspects of medicine with their families.  I wonder how they would feel to hear the debate that Starfire and Damian were having on the best ways to treat magical poisoning.  I made a mental note ask Alfred what Damian had gotten himself into.

It’s almost halfway through dinner when Tim showed up mumbling something about “incompetent fools” with Tanya, who was wearing a very large diamond on her left hand.

“He thought he could hide it from me!” Tanya crowded and Tim pretended to pout.

“Were you going to put it in a cup of coffee for ask her Timmy?”  Jason teased.

“Well it still would have been better than how _you_ proposed ” Tim shot back.

“Speaking of life announcements...” bless Dick and his big-brother need to quell arguments.  It turned out that he and Starfire were indeed expecting, and it is twins again. Bruce got teary eyes, being a grandfather suits him.

\---------------------

It’s late that evening and I’m ready to fall asleep myself when I offer to take Andromeda upstairs to tuck her in.  Between her and Mar’i, not to mention the impending new arrivals, Dick and and Starfire were certainly going to have their hands full.  Down stairs the party is still in full swing; the down side of a house full of people who are used to working nights.

Andi mumbles something in her sleep but doesn't  stir as I climb the stairs. Voices filter out from the kitchen and I pause to try and work out who else had slipped away early.

“...been a few years Alfred.”

“That it has master Bruce.”  I’m about to continue down the hall when the next sentence makes me pause again.

“Do you think we’ve made a difference Alfred?  All these years and the battle continues.” A bit too much bourbon in the engog it would seem.  There is the sound of a mug being scraped across a counter and Bruce’s deep baritone continues, “Only now it’s their battle.  Hell of a gift for the next generation.” I sigh, the one thing Bruce is never be able to see is his own triumphs, and telling him otherwise is like trying to out-argue Ma Kent.  Apparently Alfred agreed with me, there is a cough and what sounds suspiciously like a cup being poured out and rinsed before Alfred speaks,

“You build this house Master Bruce.”  I can almost see the two men - one with somehow still pristine white gloves and perfectly pressed suite, the other with grey hair and the beginnings of arthritis that he was adamantly denying - standing across the counter from each other and both remembering the lifetime of memories made in that very room.  This is their moment and I won’t intrude on it. I resettle Andi on my hip and continue down the hall.

“You built this house for them and now they are going to keep on building.  For their children.” Alfred’s words follow me down the hall.

I tuck the little girl next to her sister and tiptoe silently back into the hall.  Jason’s old room hasn't had any C4 hidden in the floorboards for years (or at least there had _better not_ be any) but there are still the scorch marks in the carpet and fold homework and newspaper clippings tucked into the desk.  The sounds of people that work their way upstairs make a comforting background hum as I get ready for bed.

Tomorrow will bring battles both old and new; but battle and heartbreak are not new to this family.  Wayne manor might be built with stone and brick but the family inside is made of pure grit and the most stubborn love I’ve ever known.  As I drift off to sleep there is a smile on my lips. After everything I’ve experienced and everything we’ve been through there are two things that I am certain of.  One, somethings are worth fighting for, and two, my family is going to be just fine.   

**Author's Note:**

> This is the end of the Building Home series chronologically speaking. It is not the last story I plan to write in this ‘verse though. Stay tuned for much more family feels and shenanigans!


End file.
